(Reuters) -Utility firm Hawaiian Electric said on Tuesday it had begun rolling outages on Hawaii Island due to the unavailability and reduced output from several large generators.
The Honolulu-based power company said its largest generator, Hamakua Energy, unexpectedly tripped offline late Tuesday afternoon and Puna Geothermal Venture was operating at a reduced capacity.
Hawaiian Electric added one of its combustion turbines had tripped offline on Tuesday evening on the island, which contains the towns of Hilo and Kona.
“Hill Plant Unit No. 5, Keahole CT-5, and Puna Steam Plant also are unavailable due to planned annual maintenance or repairs. Wind resources, which help meet demand at night, also are near zero,” the company said in a statement.
It asked its customers to conserve energy from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. HST on Tuesday (0300 to 0700 GMT on Wednesday).
Hawaiian Electric said the timing and extent of the outages would depend on the amount of demand on the system and the availability of generators.
It did not say how many homes and businesses would be affected by the outages and did not respond immediately to a Reuters request for additional comment.
The company is separately facing multiple lawsuits claiming it was to blame for a wildfire that tore through the island of Maui last year, killing at least 100 people.
Hawaiian Electric said in November it was unable to submit its quarterly filing with U.S. securities regulators on time due to its expected contribution towards a fund to compensate victims of the Maui fire.
(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur and Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Jamie Freed)
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